Comparing reality with what's shown by news media.
False comparison. I'm surprised you even went there
It was someone else then. My apologies.
You will laugh if I told you I did not even know who Tucker was until Trump left office or did not really follow him. There is a point to be made here. A leading opposition voice has been sacked. What does that say about American press freedom?
Like it says, I'm fan of no one. I owe my allegiance to no one but the truth and numbers.
I'll take only truth here as numbers are another subject. Very difficult to get to truth. Takes a lot of time and you might not even find it. I'm looking for best approximations. Realistically, that is all you get to work with.
Reading an article you know 5%, debate and study some you get to 10%, part of industry or govt you are at 25%. From the ruling party, the decision was made then 50%. Fly on the wall listening to the people who took the decision then 100%.
So what degree of truth are you looking for?
The trouble in this country is there is no statute of limitations so very little gets declassified. A lot of the reasons behind decisions are taken to the grave by the people who took them. That affects institutional learning. We need to change this but there is no support because decisions made in the past can affect electoral prospects in the future.
I agree. If I do take on that diet, I'll sleep better and I'll probably live longer. Alas, I know too much. I'd love it if I'm proven wrong.
What I said about following pro-govt media became even more important during the Trump administration. BBC, Guardian, NYT & WAPO were off the list. Many of their TV channels as well. Forget CNN, MSNBC or the others. Fox was fine but very limited. Alt media to the rescue. My source was Steve Bannon, his former campaign manager. who ran a daily program. Trump said on Jan 6 that the US media was free but not fair. Free just means you can say anything and their media is far more abusive than ours. How many opposition voices got sacked during Trump's time? none come to mind.
Same with the Ukraine conflict because ALL Western MSM is opposition media on this topic. Here I adapted the formula to understand domestic politics into understanding an international conflict and a year in it served me well. I believe I can argue with Russians about the affairs of their state without living there or speaking their language. It amazes me how clueless Westerners are about the conflict and these are people who you could consider otherwise informed on developments.
One didn't have to read the media. We got blasted by india shining propaganda ads 24x7. Same thing is happening right now. Only difference it's 10x now. Student are getting suspended if they don't attend man ki baat telecast. Propaganda is now part of the school collage curriculum. With increased taxes, conservative import & travelling policies, extravagant public spending, homophobia, red tape, news media preaching govt 24x7, anti-democracy, this govt is more communisty than India ever was.
Vajpayee, MMS or current PM, none of our leaders were ever exceptional. All have a few moments of success with more failures to count. Vajpayee was giggling and hugging Pakistani PM in Islamabad in the same week Pakistani army pulled up in Kargil. Intelligence super failure. We would have been clocking the same numbers even if our current PM was Mayawati or Rakhi Sawant. Our PM hasn't done anything exceptional or anything different, well, apart from blaming failures on Nehru and British. I'll give one thing to Vajpayee, he at least didn't play 'divide and conquer' with the public.
Too many ratholes I want to avoid getting into that will derail the discussion. This is the usual opposition 'all-you-can-eat' buffet
I started with media and what needs to be taken into account. Back then I was clueless about media.
You cannot understand what Bush was doing by listening to CNN. We don't get Fox in India. You cannot understand what UPA is doing by listening to Arnab.
Both are great examples of time waste. You cannot speak for even five minutes about the policy of either govt listening to those sources and whatever you say is all wrong.
No, I was not smart enough to understand this distinction back then
I don't listen to Arnab much these days even because who needs to spend an hour when Palki can make the point in five minutes.
Unless it's from some other party. Then it's not okay.
Any party.
You really don't want to see reality then. Process is the "punishment" in such cases which you will realize only when you yourself experience it firsthand.
I don't deny harassment. But no conviction no cigar. The point stands. People cannot be convicted of a law that no longer exists. I think that is a reasonable argument, don't you?
Why are you comparing Modi with Trump in the first place? Nobody sane or logical opposed US election results, even republicans own controlled states didn't. Now some republican leaders may make "indirect" claims just for votes but at that time no major republican leader opposed it formally(aka in courts/election institutions). Americans think well of their democracy, enough to believe that incidents like Capitol Hill attack or Trump refusing to accept election result won't change the outcome of a fair election.
Since people like to say we are not a mature democracy i pointed out what goes on elsewhere.
Trump might win again but he will never win by reversing the outcome of a fair election in US like he wanted in 2020.
I'll believe it when I see it. I think he's gone for good. Unless something changes, Dems get a second term.
They want rubber-stamp presidents who will do what they are told. The odds of a US president getting a second term are way higher than an Indian PM going back a few decades.
Trump disrupted that rhythm. That is why he was hated by the establishment and they tell their media people to propagate that hate. The way the man was treated really did affect the way I consume media. It was so blatant.
I;ve had to change the way i understand the world since the last few years in the interests of keeping my sanity. I'm in a good place as a result.